August 09 , 2004
NR.080

CANADA’S NATIONAL UNDER-18 TEAM NAMES TEAM
CAPTAINS AND ANNOUNCE ONE ROSTER CHANGE

CALGARY, ALBERTA – Canada’s National Under-18 Team, who open the Junior World Cup Tournament in Slovakia on Tuesday, August 10 versus Switzerland, have named its team captains and announced one roster change due to injury.

Ryan Parent, a native of Sioux Lookout, Ontario, will be Canada’s team captain. Parent spent last year with the Guelph Storm, winning the OHL and competing in the Memorial Cup. Parent’s previous Program of Excellence (POE) experience includes being named team captain of the gold medal winning Team Ontario at the 2004 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

The two assistant captains are North Vancouver, BC native Gilbert Brule and Mississauga, ON native, Ryan O’Marra. Brule spent last season with the Vancouver Giants in the WHL while O’Marra played with the Erie Otters of the OHL.

Team Canada also made a change to its Under-18 roster. After naming Chris Durand to the roster on Friday, the player was evaluated by team doctors prior to departing for Europe. It was determined that the injury suffered on the last day of camp would not allow him to participate and travel to Europe. Therefore, Team Canada head scout Blair MacKasey and the coaching staff named Marc-Andre Cote of Montreal, Quebec to Canada’s roster to replace the injured Durand.

Canada will play its first game of the Junior World Cup on Tuesday, August 10th versus Switzerland. There will be no televised or radio coverage of the games in Canada, but the scores and game summaries will be posted as soon as they are available to us at www.hockeycanada.ca throughout the Junior World Cup which runs from August 10-15 in Breclav, Czech Republic and Piestany, Slovakia.